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Category: 411 Tools

As you might have noticed, I’ve updated the look to 411 Junkie. Not by choice, mind you. I loved the look I had before, but for whatever reason, my menu bar just stopped working with that layout. No clue why.

This was the next best thing. Yes, it’s a WordPress theme, one of the Twenty-somethings. I’ve used it before so if it looks familiar that’s why (and I’m going to say that you’ve noticed because that means you visit my blog often enough to notice and pretending that you’ve noticed will make me happy and you know, what? It’s kinda of my blog so . . . yep).

I am also giving the 411 Toolbox a makeover (scheduled to be done within these next fourteen days–days because it sounds longer than two weeks. Trying to psych me out!). I stumbled on the coolest thing this past weekend when insomnia hit. Now, I’m always looking for ways to improve my blog (just because it’s my belief that you can never not improve, you know? That there is always something new to learn). So, if you’re a blogger or if you’re learning about blogging . . . actually, if you’re looking for ideas, advice, or just tips and tricks on finding a way to get passive income, you really need to check out Pat Flynn’s website, Smart Passive Income.

So I subscribe to his emails and in one of his emails (is SPI Weekend Digest) he mentions ways to improve your blog with his post “10 Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW to Improve Your Online Business or Blog.” This lead to a website grader which lead to another great website! John Saddington’s website john.do. And I liked his Colophon. I’ve thought of doing something similar for a while now and two things stopped me. One, time. And two, I didn’t know how to start other than “About me.” And I love how inclusive he is and so that was my inspiration.

There will be a few more changes (hopefully) by the end of this month. There are things I really want to get done, that it’s about time they get done, and I’m picking this month to get them done. I’ve said I’d get things done before and never did (and hopefully this time will be different, you know? With me being more focused and stuff), but for some reason or other I feel motivated to do so. And I never ignore my instincts so . . . this month. May. Some changes. For the better. Hopefully. Most likely.

And I never ignore my instincts so . . . this month. May. Some changes. For the better. Hopefully. Most likely.

Like this:

As you may well have guessed, I’m an information junkie. The problem with being an information junkie is the annoying need to know.

For example:

I read a total of 62 books

which totals to 12,892 pages

and that the longest book I read had 669 (Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare)

and out of those 62 books, 19 contributed to the 26 reading challenges.

I read mostly works of female authors

and mostly mysteries

in electronic format (mainly Kindle)

purchased from Amazon.

It also seems, on average, I take about two days to complete a book.

And all this because I thought Book Riot reading log was brilliant and immediately downloaded it so I could keep track of my reads. Like their post mentions, GoodReads is an immensely useful tool (which I talk about here) and I still use it but sometimes you just need to know more.

Which brings me to a shout out to Book Riot once more because they’ve made an epic reading log (which you can find here). I’ve already downloaded it and can’t wait to fill it up. This log has a few more categories to track including whether the read is comic or prose (which I’m not sure if I’ll use this since I don’t read much comics), fiction or nonfiction, and a reading challenge column. They even created a “results” tab which is I love because, hello, information junkie. It’s a nice summary to the main log.

Mad props (I don’t know if this phrase is even used anymore?) going out to Book Riot for taking the time to come up with such a log and then to share with all of us lesser beings (because it never dawned on me to create a reading log in a spreadsheet format face palm–and sorry if this generalization seems offensive, I really am referring to me as the lesser being–#disclaimer?), what I like about their templates is that from here, I can customize the log to what I want to track. And to inspire you a bit more, because it inspired me, you can take a look at this post, again from Book Riot.

With the weekend ahead of me, I know what I’m going to be doing (at least, in theory). Feel free to chime in if you’ve done things differently.